Queenswood was fortunate to have Matthew Syed speak to parents, girls and staff on 21 January. His talk echoed sentiments from his most recent book Black Box Thinking. In speaking about this book he has said ‘The concept of learning from our mistakes sounds rather basic but I argue in the book that this idea has huge urgency in the world today.’   

Last month, in an article in the Guardian, Matthew Syed stated that our society betrays children by making them afraid to fail. In the article Syed calls for a revolution in the way that we think about failure.   

Syed writes, ‘Instead of giving up or being so threatened by our mistakes that we cover them up, we should see them as learning opportunities. This is not just about performance, but also equanimity. Only when we recognise our own fallibility are we liberated to seek out new ways to improve, rather than being held back by the paranoia and defensiveness that governs so much of working life.’

Abilities are Flexible, Not Fixed

Recent evidence has supported the theory that abilities are flexible, not fixed.

‘Many of us (both pupils and those involved in education) remain relatively ignorant of the link between psychology and success, assuming that, for example, our intelligence is of fixed, innate and unchangeable quantity’, writes teacher and psychologist Marc Smith in a Guardian Article entitled, Importance of Failure: Why Olympians and A-Level Students All Need to Fail.

Evolving and Progressing by Failing

In Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed explains that scientific theories evolve and progress by failing. Each failure takes us a step closer to success. He advocates shifting the focus on the failure to see it as something that is exciting and enlightening, rather than something that is shameful and stigmatising. Syed calls for this method of thinking to be applied to our social institutions, political institutions and our own lives.